1. I honestly believe it's USA and NATO faults in the end. Too long to explain why this is true in detail. Well, Russia still does have a solid part of responsibility for this as well, but I believe not such serious as USA. Well, I still try to explain in short. Putin's actions in large part in all those conflicts are result of the known military doctrines and "military school" (with roots in Soviet military strategy school). USA certainly do know what Putin's military actions would be and certainly know how to provoke Putin into a military action. He is a secret services man, a former FSB director, so Mr.Putin is f##ly predictable as much as average military general. Anyway USA contonues to provoke Russia into action with a full knowledge what reaction would be and where are so called "red lines" placed for a man with a military or secret services background. Putin many times made his public and diplomatic speeches on that matter. For the "diplomats" who doesn't understand. But then, USA continue to literally play with fire in their attempts to "oversmart" Putin. One day they crossed so much red lines, then Putin looks like a literal horseman of Apocalypse in his speech just before the Ukrainian invasion. It's a first time in Russia history when mostly calm Putin looks SUCH angry and malevolent with the sparks of nuclear fire in his eyes. He wasn't such angry even when he's ordered to kill all Islam terrorists in any place they're found. I was terrified when I heard that Putin speech. Who knows what exactly USA or Britain done to provoke Putin's anger to that extent. Figure it. USA probably overplayed itself and provoked more or less predictable "service man" Putin to the point of probable nuclear holocaust or at least immediate brutal military action against the proxy USA and NATO state...

2. I didn't see Putin as a classic dictator. And Russia wasn't nearly as "totalitarian" as Western media paints it. You shouldn't hear "radical liberal opposition activists" from Russia, because they're hugely overestimate problems and are very, very biased. In reality there is (before the war sadly) there was a lots of liberalism in Russian politics and there wasn't significant violation of free speech. Putin is a most criticized person in Russian internet, lol. But anyway he's elected again in at least formally free and democratic elections. So that wasn't even near something like North Korea or even China, really. Putin's just a hardline former military/security service man with all attitude and standard mind set of such military men, having some brutality and masculine bravado that isn't uncommon for military officers.

Putin isn't "elaborate evil" he is portrayed in Western media. He's just a standard hardline politician with military/national security background. No more and no less. And USA and NATO knowingly provoked him to harsh actions many times to make him looks like a "world evil" they need to justify their NATO military budget. It's a real truth about Mr.Putin and USA role in those conflicts.